In Time | The Flash

Chapter Three | Aspen

"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

>>>·<<<

CHAPTER THREE

>>> Aspen's P.O.V. <<<

I spend the rest of the day setting up an event that will hit off the fall season. We usually have one of these every year, at least we have since I started Central City's Society of Animals five years ago. I've been working on this year's event since the previous one ended. The SoA's Fall Festival of 2015 will be the greatest yet! Kepler, Halley, and several others have been working around the clock, on top of their daily work, to get this thing up and running.

Around three o'clock, a half an hour before I'm supposed to pick Persephone up from her school, I decide to take a break from the madness of the 9 to 5 and head down to the Boulevard Building. I pack up my things, including my folder on the Festival, and grab my coat as I head out the door.

I turn to smile at our receptionist at the front desk. "Hi, Aspen," she smiles back.

I lean against the front desk in a friendly manner. "Hello, Judy. How's the day going?"

She rolls her eyes in a playful manner. "I got a call from Ian's elementary school principle. He's roughhousing in between classes again."

I chuckle at the mental picture of the little brown-haired, dark-skinned boy trying to start fights again, even though he's always ten times smaller than his opposition. "Your boy is more bull than boy, Judy."

"He gets it from his father, I swear."

Halley walks down the hallway towards my office as I clock out at the front desk. I see her knocking from down the hall and wave her over. She hurries down towards me with a grin on her face, a letter in her hand. "What's this?" I ask as she hands it to me.

She's almost bouncing as she points for me to open it. "Read it!"

With hesitation yet curiosity, I open the envelope and read what it has to say on the inside. My eyes grow wide and I gasp. "Oh my goddess!"

"It's the anonymous doner! He or she has given us nearly ten thousand dollars again!"

"This is the third time, and right around Festival times," I say, rereading the letter over and over. It's typed on a computer and printed, and there's no name. Just a simple phrase as a signature: The future will be here faster than you think.

"No name or address? No nothing?"

Halley shakes her head. "Nothing. Zip, zilch, zero, nada. Just like all the others."

"Electronic transfer like all the others?" Halley nods. "Well, some like their charity to be secret. I can respect that, I just wish I had someone to thank."

"You and me both," Halley grins, taking the letter back from my hands.

"Prepare a small thank you that we can give at the Festival. If our secret admirer is there, he or she will hear it. Run the letter and what happened by Nadia. She'll write it up."

Halley nods. "Where are you off to?"

"The Boulevard Building, then to pick up Seph. You think you can hold down the fort?"

She rolls her eyes. "Hold down home base with over a hundred employees? Sure. My brother? Unclear."

I chuckle and hug her briefly. "I think you can handle your little brother."

As she walks away, she turns over her shoulder to shout, "Most important twelve minutes of my life!"

>>>·<<<

When I pull up to the Boulevard Building, a small warehouse at the edge of the busiest neighborhood in the Industrial District of Central City, my throat clenches up. What should be a busy and thriving place for those in need is silent. There are no cars of the volunteers outside, no sounds coming from the open door, and no lights on inside.

I step out from my vehicle, taking shaky movements towards the door. I can feel tears in my eyes, knowing deep in my heart already that my mother has something to do with this. She warned me she would take away what I loved. She warned me that the Boulevard Building would be reclaimed.

I step through the open front door, walking down the dark hallway of the building. I turn right, knowing that there should be volunteers swarming around the homeless of Central City. There should be the sounds of voices, of animals, of those being helped. When I turn right, the only thing I see is a dark, open space where crates and beds used to be.

The largest room in this building was used as an emergency sleeping area. Those who needed rest were ushered here, no questions asked, after having a hot meal. There should be blankets strewn across the floor, animals sleeping on pillows, and children clinging to their parents as they were rocked to sleep in a warm, dry place.

All I can see from the dim light of the small windows on the far corners of the room is a small table that was left, a piece of paper on top. I walk over to the table, pick up the piece of paper, and read the notice of eviction. My hands begin to shake, and the paper slips from my fingers. Underneath the notice, I find a small note in the handwriting of Aeri Sado. With trembling fingers, I pick it up.

"I told you that you should have done what needed to be done."

My breathing comes out in shaky gasps, tears filling my eyes. The note falls to the ground, on top of the notice, and I look around the large, empty room of the Boulevard Building. Everywhere I turn, my sadness only grows. And my anger. 

The green mist returns, filling my shaking fists. I raise them in front of me, eyes growing wide with fear. "No, no, no. Goddess, please no."

I continue to repeat the foreign Irish Gaelic words under my breath. "Cumhacht sios. Damn it, cumhacht sios! Power down!"

My words are in vain, and my worst fear comes to life. My power grows uncontrollably, and with a pained scream, the glass from the windows blows out and the building trembles around me.

END CHAPTER THREE